Hello everyone! Welcome to the first chapter of Missions of the Heart! I have a bad habit of writing very short chapters, but with this fan fiction, I'm trying to write at least 3,000 words a chapter!
BUT BOY IS IT HARD! Ah well, enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Everything Happens for a Reason
A looming figure stood over Meryl's desk as she was writing up her report on the fire at the Johnston's farm for the Sunday paper. She timidly looked up at the intimidating face of her boss.
"Meryl, can I see you in my office for a moment, please?" He growled out at her. She meekly nodded, and followed his back with her eyes as he retreated to the only office in the building. As the dread in her stomach continued to grow, she tried to think of why the boss would be calling her into her office and could only come to one conclusion: he was going to fire her.
That had to be it, because he had been insinuating for weeks that Meryl wouldn't be working there for much longer, and neither would her co-worker Millie Thompson. She didn't know Millie that well, but she knew that she, like Meryl, was a reliable, tough worker who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. She had seen Millie furiously typing away at her computer, her tall, broad frame almost seeming too big for the cubicle she was assigned. She always turned in quality work, though, and always with a big smile on her friendly, open face. The paper must not be doing very well, because she couldn't think of another reason. Why was the boss firing two of his best employees? Was it because he wanted to save money on her lengthy investigations that had solved some of the crimes of the century? Just because the paper had been sued recently on a slight misrepresentation of facts by a now defunct warlord (She had said that he was blond when he was actually a redhead. It was a "misrepresentation of his heritage" according to the lawyers), did not mean he could fire her when she had won multiple awards for her daring undercover and in-depth reporting.
Sometimes, journalism just wasn't fair.
As she stepped into the office, she noticed the papers strewn all over his desk, most of which were insurance claims. "Fire caused by Vash the Stampede destroyed farmstead, no deaths, replacement and future crop replacements estimated at $800,000" "Business building destroyed by Vash the Stampede, $250,000 to replace, no deaths" "Injuries caused by Vash the Stampede during physical confrontation cost the state $50,000, but no deaths"
This Vash guy sure knows how to rack up a bill she thought. Just as she was trying to see what other claims concerning Vash the Stampede were, her boss turned around in his chair.
"Meryl, you know that you are one of my best workers here at Bernadelli Newspapers. You have great reporting skills and a way of getting people to talk to you. I also know that you are a very capable young woman, and you will do well no matter where you may go in life."
He's buttering me up, trying to make me feel better about being sacked.
"And it is with these things in mind that I have decided that you are the best candidate for this special mission along with Millie Thompson."
Special mission? The weight in her stomach disappeared as her curiosity grew. Does this have to do with Vash the Stampede?
"Unfortunately, this has to do with that crazed lunatic, Vash the Stampede." He looked down at his hands. "I understand if you refuse, but you are simply –"
"I'll take it!" Meryl cut him off. She had not been on a special mission in a long time. This time it must be extra dangerous, otherwise the boss would not let her have a partner.
He looked up at her, completely taken aback. "There's quite a bit of danger involved with this mission, Meryl ..."
"And I assume I will be fairly compensated for my time and the danger I'm embarking on."
"Well, if readership increases, then we would be willing to discuss splitting the profits. . ."
"No dice. I want 30%, or no deal." Meryl looked at her boss hard. If there was one thing she was good at, it was negotiating her price. "And I want a base pay of $100,000 per year, plus travel fees."
Her boss shook his head. "No. I'll give you 75% of the profits made on the online addition of your weekly column, and a base pay of $90,000, plus all travel expenses except for eating out." Seeing as she was getting a $30,000 dollar raise and a chance to really see some online payoff with virtually no expense to her sounded like a good deal. I can finally make a down payment on a house! Or finally get a car!
"Deal. Now tell me more about this mission."
Millie was busy in the print room when Meryl Strife, a girl that wrote really interesting stories for the paper, came in. The noise of the printers was deafening, but she could tell that Meryl needed a place to talk. Something exciting must be happening if she's down here. Millie worked as a copywriter, so she liked being down in the print shop to see how her work looked like when it was all said and done. It was one of the most satisfying parts of her job.
She took off her apron and brushed off her pants. Her white shirt had some ink blotches on it, and the sleeves were rolled up. She then led Meryl, a woman of short stature and a lot of energy, to a side room where the two of them could talk.
Meryl stood in front of Millie and told her that she had the opportunity of a lifetime.
"Wow." Meryl said, removing her hard hat and shaking out her long, dark blond hair. "What is it?"
"You and I are going to find Vash the Stampede, and then follow him to journalize all of his shenanigans for a year."
"That is interesting. Don't most people think that Vash the Stampede should have been locked up by now?" Millie tipped her head to the side to think about it, and her blue eyes headed towards the ceiling as she thought.
Meryl clutched her fist together, "Right! But, he hasn't actually committed any crimes! He's one of the world's most interesting people, and we are going to follow him and see what he's really like!" Meryl couldn't believe her good luck in snagging this opportunity.
Millie smiled, "All right Meryl, we better get our things together right away."
A thousand miles away, in a busy alley in Shanghai where little carts were bustling with business and serving hot, cheap food, a man with spiky, blond hair sneezed twice.
"Well, I wonder if someone somewhere is talking about me," he said to himself. He shrugged, and continued to eat his rice and fish.
The small man who served him his food was talking to some men in black coats. Vash glanced up and quickly finished his meal as the man pointed in his direction. Vash quickly slipped through the crowd and hopped into a cart with a young woman. "Hey, can I hitch a ride?" He smiled and sat down. The girl, who was surprised to see another tourist in this part of town quickly agreed and introduced herself. Just when she thought that she might just ask this stranger to share her room that night, Vash got out of the cart as quickly as he had gotten in and waved over his shoulder as he disappeared into the crowd.
What a strange man. The girl thought.
Vash turned a corner and shuffled down a narrow passageway between two buildings where the door to his current hideout was. He quickly checked around him to make sure he wasn't followed, and ducked into the doorway.
"Home at last!" He declared to the empty room that contained his very few belongings: a duffel bag, a bedroll, and a book. He carried a large, western style gun that he stashed safely away in his long, red coat. He folded his glasses and laid out his bedroll to sleep for the night.
I've probably got one day left in this place before they find me. Tomorrow I better move on. He shut his eyes to fall asleep. He shut out the noise of the world, the clattering of the carts, the frying of the food, and the liveliness of the poor people who lived in their own little corner of this world and began to dream about his previous life.
The life before he was a full-time traveler.
Meryl showed her plane ticket to the woman behind the counter to scan. Her travel suitcase was packed, her wallet had a company credit card, and Millie was by her side with all the snacks. As the two boarded the plane and took their seats, Meryl took out her tablet with all of her notes on it to review.
According to various internet rumors, newspaper articles, insurance claims, bills, and local sightings, she could safely assume that Vash the Stampede was in Asia, most likely in Shanghai or Beijing. She didn't think that he would be staying in the Shantytowns of Shanghai, but those were a possibility as there were reports from missionaries working in those areas of a tall, blond man playing ball with a bunch of kids. Although this didn't quite sound like the crazed gunman that she had come to know in her research, she couldn't discount it. A good reporter doesn't discount any lead she can find.
Millie sat down next to her and smiled. "I can't wait to get to China. I've never left the country!" She arranged the snacks between the seats for the girls and started to settle in. "In fact, my big brother gave me a map of Shanghai just so I wouldn't get lost!" She proceeded to pull out the entire map which took over both of their seats and folding trays. Meryl couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the giant map, but she just smiled and took it. Then she noticed all the red circles and X's that spread across the map. "I already marked out all the areas that Vash the Stampede may be!"
"This is great work Millie! We'll track down this guy in no time!" Meryl was very excited to start this next assignment, her blood always got pumping when she started a new assignment, but this time it was even more excited because she was the only reporter who the paper trusted with this job.
Meryl sat back in her seat, shut off her kindle, and prepared for the long flight to China.
Vash was just packing up his bedroll when he heard the commotion downstairs.
"You no come up! Nothing here!" His small landlady was shouting. Then he heard a thump and her scream, "No one up there, don't go up there!" Then he heard the familiar boots on the landing outside his door.
"Gotta go." He said to himself as he threw the bag over his shoulder and jumped out of the window onto the roof of the next building over. As he looked over his shoulder, he saw the two men in the black suits break into the room and point their guns as they searched. Vash snickered, thinking that he had got away with it.
Just then, one of them pointed out the window at Vash's retreating figure, and both of them began to shoot.
Vash screamed as he dodged the bullets with his feet and leapt on to an adjacent building. The two men climbed out of his window and were shooting at him from the rooftop. The pair chased Vash down to the end of the building until Vash leapt off into the lines of laundry below. The two men found a fire escape to climb down, but by the time they had made it to the ground, Vash had once again disappeared into the crowd.
As he wandered the streets of Shanghai, Vash started thinking that he should rethink his lifestyle choices. He picked up an order of doughnuts and reminded himself that he needed to thank his landlady.
When he had showed up in the shack houses of Shanghai, he had been in bad shape. He had just escaped these men, these bounty hunters, and people seeking vengeance in Japan on a fishing shack. He had hid with the old fisherman, helping him pull in bigger loads of fish than he had seen in a long time. The old man was grateful, but he said goodbye to Vash as soon as his boat had docked. That was fine by Vash, he was just glad to be on dry land again. Before departing, the old man did give him the address of his sister who had some rooms for rent. He explained that they weren't nice rooms, but it was all he could offer Vash in thanks for his help.
Vash showed up at her doorstep the next afternoon, and she took him in without a second thought. She fed him, clothed him, and dressed his wounds. He did some repairs around the apartments in exchange, and tried to give her enough money to move into a better neighborhood.
As he sat eating his rice, he hoped that she was alright and that the men hadn't injured her too badly. He wished he could go back, but he worried that he would just cause more trouble and harm if he did. It was best that he left her and her little apartment house alone.
The sun began to set on Shanghai, and Vash had found an alley to sleep in for the night.
Meryl was quietly snoring on the long plane ride after watching a silly romantic comedy and reading a book. Millie was still up, writing letters to each of her family members on why she was travelling abroad for quite some time.
"You seem to writing an awful lot." Millie looked up to see the speaker, and she saw a tall, handsome man wearing a blue suit sitting across the aisle from her. She blinked, not exactly knowing what to do next. He smiled, "I've been watching you write for quite some time now. May I ask who you are writing to?"
Millie replied eagerly, "Why yes! I'm writing to every single member of my family to tell them why I won't be at Christmas this year!"
Leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, the man grinned. "Yeah, I bet it must be nice to have a family to write to. It looks like you have a big one too."
"Well yeah, but how did you know?" Millie questioned him. He laughed a deep, earnest laugh that reminded Millie of her biggest brother.
"Well, you have at least twenty-five envelopes that you've set aside so far! And it looks like you still have a lot left to go!" He reached over and grabbed her stack of envelopes and the stamps. "I can help you out if you would like."
Millie smiled. "Yes, I would like that very much." He smiled and began to carefully lick each envelopes seal and placing the appropriate number of stamps in the top right corner.
The pair sat in silence on the quiet plane flying over the wide Pacific Ocean for a while until Millie finally spoke up again. "May I ask you what your name is, stranger?"
"My name is Nicholas D. Wolfwood. I'm a travelling Chaplin that serves missionaries around the world, particularly dangerous parts." He smiled at her as he decidedly stuck another stamp on the envelope. "What about you?"
"Well, I'm Millie Thompson, and I'm a copywriter for Bernadelli Newspapers. My partner, Meryl, and I are going on a yearlong mission following the daring and dangerous vigilante, Vash the Stampede."
Wolfwood widened his eyes. "Wow that sounds like a big job."
"Yep, you bet it is! Our boss only trusted us with this mission, because we are the only girls that can handle it." Millie blushed slightly, a look that Wolfwood thought was very becoming on her. "At least that's what Meryl says anyways."
He nodded his head and continued to lick the envelopes. "I'm sure she's right. They don't send just anybody on those overseas missions."
Millie nodded. "Yeah, and Meryl's the best one for the job." He looked beyond Millie to see what this little lady looked like, and thought that she looked like a spitfire.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck on your journey." He said, handing back all the finished envelopes to Millie. She took them gently.
"Yeah. Thanks for the help!" She then tucked the envelopes in her bag safely, ready to be sent at the first post-office she saw.
"Also, take this." Wolfwood handed her his business card. "In case you are ever in any need of help, feel free to call that number. It's an international line, and you can always reach me at it."
"Wow. Okay, thank you." Millie tucked the card in her breast pocket, to keep it safe. She didn't know why, but she had a feeling that she would need that business card in the very near future.
At that moment, the plane jolted, signaling to everyone aboard that the plane was preparing for a descent. The flight attendants started handing out clean face towels and collecting the blankets and pillows from everyone as well as their trash. Millie gently shook Meryl out of her slumber, and the pair folded up their trays and packed their things together.
Wolfwood was doing the same, but he kept the tall girl with the suspenders and innocent blue eyes in the corner of his eye. He hadn't met a girl as pure as that in a long time, and for some strange reason, his sinner's heart was drawn to her. Heh, I guess I do have a heart, he thought, fingering the cross that he kept in his pocket.
As he pondered the strange twist that his plans had just taken, he thought up a scheme of how to end up travelling with the newspaper girls. After all, they were all chasing the same target, just with different reasons.
I will find you, Vash the Stampede.
Ooooooo! First chapter, done! Please, please, PLEASE review (even if you hate it! Tell me WHY you hate it!) Reviews inspire me to write more, and they keep me motivated.
Also, if you've never seen Trigun, it's definitely a must see.
As always, keep reading, keep writing, and keep the nerdy fan fiction fandom alive!